When it comes to food, are you an adventurous, nose-to-tail kind of eater? Do mysterious dishes thrill you; do unfamiliar ingredients get your taste-buds going? Or are you, like the majority of Brits, a “fussy eater”?

A recent study conducted by U.K.-based Seven Seas, a company that produces vitamins and food supplements, found that among 2000 study subjects, one in five adults had never tasted sardines or scampi, while one in ten had never had tuna or salmon, and a quarter refuse to try mackerel. Among us Brits, the ten most hated foods are:

My Granny the Escort, a new documentary that aired this week on Channel 4 in the UK, aims to demystify “mature escorts”—women over the age of 60 who choose to have sex for money. Directed and narrated by Charlie Russell, the film opens with a chirpy, Kiessling-esque tune, followed by a vague title card that reads “Somewhere in England.” We’re then transported inside a cozy suburban home. A curvy woman, dressed entirely in black, gingerly ambles down the stairs, nearly tripping over the bottom step. This is Beverley, 64. She is a grandmother and a prostitute who operates out of her humble abode. Charlie’s scheduled interview, however, is suddenly interrupted by the arrival of a client 20 years her junior.

Women are being wrongly warned during counseling sessions at allegedly “independent” clinics that an abortion could lead to serious health damage, including an increased risk of breast cancer and a propensity to sexually abuse children, The Telegraph can disclose.

The women are also being mistakenly informed by counselors that the procedure could leave them unable to carry future pregnancies to full term.

A global war on girls, which is endemic in parts of the developing world, may have landed in Britain according to a study that claims some immigrant families are using selective terminations to choose the sex of their children.

Afghan, Pakistani and Bangladeshi communities in Britain have been accused of aborting female fetuses by the Independent newspaper. An analysis of government figures suggests that the proportion of second and third born children within those groups is statistically abnormal—favoring the birth of boys.

Nothing is more difficult than to recreate in all its complexity than a distant age and not only to get it right, but make it seem fresh and relevant. Fortunately, Anne Somerset has already done this brilliantly in her outstanding biography of Elizabeth I. In the case of Elizabeth, of course, Ms. Somerset had the advantage of writing about one of the most famous (and most compellingly interesting) of all English monarchs, the subject of so many different plays, films, and television dramas that we almost feel we know and understand her. Her new subject Queen Anne, on the contrary, does not loom large as a figure around which to build a television miniseries, and most readers, in the United States at any rate, would be hard pressed to place her exactly in time, or say anything about her reign.

In fact, Anne’s relatively short reign (twelve years) was pivotal, and marked the emergence of England as a major power in the endless wars of European succession, sealed once and for all the future of England as a Protestant nation, and brought to the throne a woman of great intelligence, political skill, and determination to rule—as well as one whose strongest emotional (and perhaps sexual) attachment was to other women.

On the Loose

Interpol on Thursday issued an arrest alert for Sophia Lewthwaite, a fugitive known as the "White Widow" who is wanted by Kenyan authorities for alleged involvement in a bomb plot. Lewthwaite is a 29-year-old Muslim convert from the U.K. whose first husband was a suicide bomber in the 2005 terrorist attacks on the London Underground. Social-media reports also linked her to the mall attack in Kenya last week, saying a white female was leading the operation, though there is no evidence of her involvement. Kenyan authorities want Lewthwaite for alleged involvement in a plot to bomb holiday resorts.

Glossies

The war is on between U.K. feminists and publishers of sexist magazines for men that promote objectification of and even violence against women. Members of “Lose the Lads’ Mags,” a campaign backed by the groups U.K. Feminista, Object, and End Violence Against Women, protested on August 24 outside outlets of the retail chain Tesco to protest the sale of men’s lifestyle magazines with pornographic content. It’s part of a long-term strategy to eradicate vulnerable titles like Nuts and Zoo, which have seen declining subscriptions in recent years. The campaign has already had some success—on August 3, Tesco announced that three of the magazines in question had agreed to publish less explicit covers.

STOP THE MUSIC

England is gearing up to celebrate classical music with its Last Night of the Proms on Sept. 7, an annual patriotic summer event that is 118 years old. And for the first time ever, a woman, Marin Alsop, is set to conduct the orchestra. But conductor Vasily Petrenko, the Oslo Philharmonic’s conductor, told a Norwegian newspaper that female conductors are distractions. He said that orchestras “react better” to male conductors and that “a cute girl on a podium means that musicians think about other things.” Petrenko backpedaled on his comments by saying that he only meant what he said to apply to Russia, his homeland.

Trouble in England

Britain’s Department for International Development has come under fire after it was discovered that approximately $742,500 worth of U.K.-sponsored aid supplies, owned by Unicef, were stolen from Somali warehouses. The thefts, which took place between November 2011 and February 2012 and were carried out by the militant group Al-Shabab, were the subject of a recent BBC radio interview with international development secretary Justine Greening. She claimed the thefts highlighted the “incredibly challenging conditions” her department faces, but didn’t mention the fact that the incident occurred during the worst famine in 25 years, which left an estimated quarter of a million people dead. The thefts have given ammunition to critics, who claim that the incident shows how incompetent the British government can be.

AFRICA

Five men were arrested in Zanzibar and are being questioned by police about the acid attack that left two 18-year-old British volunteers injured Wednesday night. Apparently, Katie Gee and Kirstie Trup (pictured) were not the first victims of such a vicious and seemingly random attack on the East African Island. Members of Uamsho, a group that wants Zanzibar to become a country independent from mainland Tanzania and run under strict Muslim law, have carried out acid attacks and shootings against Muslim and Catholic leaders in the last year. Religious leaders on the island believe the men who threw acid at the girls on Wednesday could be part of Uamsho. The five suspects will be interrogated. Meanwhile, the two girls are on their way from Tanzania back to the U.K. on a medical evacuation flight.

HATERS

The woman who successfully led a campaign to get a woman besides the queen on British bills is now facing Twitter abuse in the form of death and rape threats. Caroline Criado-Perez led a movement to get Austen on the £10 note despite some leaning toward Winston Churchill. She said she received “about 50 abusive tweets an hour for 12 hours,” one that led to a man’s arrest. Criado-Perez tried to report the abuse to Twitter directly, but she said the current form is not easy to entertain in situations of massive abuse such as this. The activist then created a petition in the U.K. to ask Twitter to add a “report abuse button” and now has raked in more than 50,000 signatures. It's also elicited a response from the head of Twitter U.K., Tony Wang, who said, “We’re testing ways to simplify reporting, e.g. within a Tweet by using the ‘Report Tweet’ button in our iPhone app and on mobile web.”

TRAGIC

Susan Taylor, a woman swimming for charities along the lines of diabetes support and children's hospices, died Monday while swimming the English Channel for the causes, British officials have confirmed. Taylor ran into trouble near the French coast and, according to her Facebook page, was airlifted to a French hospital, where she later died. Taylor was reported to be in her 30s, and British officials said they are communicating with her family and providing assistance.

Domestic Discord

Following the shocking pics showing art multimillionaire Charles Saatchi apparently choking his celebrity-chef wife, the gallerist now claims it was just a ‘playful tiff.’ Tom Sykes on the rumors that Saatchi has finally flipped.

Charles Saatchi, the multimillionaire art collector who was photographed repeatedly squeezing his wife Nigella Lawson’s throat outside a London restaurant, today described the incident as “a playful tiff.”

His remarks prompted an immediate outraged reaction in a U.K. already shocked and disgusted by the images, which are plastered all over today’s newspaper front pages.